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Testimonies for the Church Volume 8
unerring standard. He knows that God’s word is truth, and truth can
never contradict itself; whatever in the teaching of so-called science
contradicts the truth of God’s revelation is mere human guesswork.
To the really wise, scientific research opens vast fields of thought
and information. The ways of God as revealed in the natural world
and in His dealings with man constitute a treasury from which every
student in the school of Christ may draw.
* * * * *
The real evidence of a living God is not merely in theory; it is
in the conviction that God has written in our hearts, illuminated and
explained by His word. It is in the living power in His created works,
seen by the eye which the Holy Spirit has enlightened.
Those who judge of God from His handiwork, and not from the
suppositions of great men, see His presence in everything. They behold
His smile in the glad sunshine, and His love and care for man in the
rich fields of autumn. Even the adornments of the earth, the grass
of living green, the lovely flowers of every hue, the lofty and varied
trees of the forest, the dancing brook, the noble river, the placid lake,
testify to the tender, fatherly care of God and to His desire to make
His children happy.
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Nature a Key to Divine Mysteries
As the student thus contemplates the things of nature, a new per-
ception of truth comes to him. The teachings in God’s great book of
nature bear testimony to the truth of the written word.
In the plan of redemption there are mysteries that the human mind
cannot fathom, many things that human wisdom cannot explain; but
nature can teach us much concerning the mystery of godliness. Every
shrub, every tree bearing fruit, all vegetation, has lessons for our study.
In the growth of the seed are to be read the mysteries of the kingdom
of God.
To the heart softened by the grace of God, the sun, the moon, the
stars, the trees, the flowers of the field, utter words of counsel. The
sowing of the seed carries the mind to spiritual seed sowing. The tree
declares that a good tree cannot bear evil fruit, neither can an evil tree